“If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud you again.”
Source: The Works of William Shakespeare, Complete: Accurately Printed from the Text of the Corrected Copy Left by the Late George Steevens
“I see, sir, you are liberal in offers. You taught me first to beg, and now methinks You teach me how a beggar should be answered.”
“A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry. But were we burd'ned with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain: So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me; But if thou live to see like right bereft, This fool-begged patience in thee will be left.”
Source: The Complete Works
“Then know, that I have little wealth to lose. A man I am, crossed with adversity; My riches are these poor habiliments, Of which if you should here disfurnish me, You take the sum and substance that I have.”
Source: The Complete Works of William Shakspeare
“Ever note, Lucilius, When love begins to sicken and decay It useth an enforced ceremony. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith; But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, Make gallant show and promise of their mettle; But when they should endure the bloody spur, They fall their crests, and like deceitful jades Sink in the trial.”
Source: Making Sense of Julius Caesar! a Students Guide to Shakespeare's Play (Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling)
“The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark When neither is attended; and I think The nightingale, if she should sing by day When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the wren. How many thing by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection!”
“Men so noble, However faulty, yet should find respect For what they have been: 'tis a cruelty To load a falling man.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“What, gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do; it cannot speak, For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.”
“Now the good gods forbid That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude Towards her deserved children is enrolled In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam Should now eat up her own!”
Source: Coriolanus
“Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude; of which we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare
“What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within's two hours.”
Source: Hamlet: Revised Edition
“No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds.”
“And the more pity that great folk should have count'nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christen.”
Source: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
“Great men should drink with harness on their throats.”
Source: Timon of Athens
“Should all despair That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves.”
“The private wound is deepest. O time most accurst, 'Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!”
Source: Two Gentlemen Verona: Third Series
“I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that's in me should set hell on fire.”
Source: Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
“Come, swear it, damn thyself, lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves should fear to seize thee; therefore be double-damned, swear,--thou art honest.”
Source: The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: With a Life of the Poet, and Notes, Original and Selected; Together with a Copious Glossary
“We make trifles of terrors,
Ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge,
When we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.”
“I always thought it was both impious and unnatural that such immanity and bloody strife should reign among professors of one faith.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare: in twenty-one volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators, to which are added notes
“When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.”
“O sir, you are old; nature in you stands on the very verge of her confine; you should be ruled and led by some discretion, that discerns your fate better than you yourself.”
“There should be hours for necessities, not for delights; times to repair our nature with comforting repose, and not for us to waste these times.”
Source: Dramatical Works: King Henry the Eighth
“Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe
That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow.
Come, mourn with me for what I do lament,
And put sullen black incontinent.
I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land
To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.
March sadly after. Grace my mournings here
In weeping after this untimely bier.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“No, by my soul, I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.”
Source: Histories of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
“This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change,
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“That we would do
We should do when we would, for this 'would' changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,
And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing.”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare: With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators
“Nay, had I pow'r, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.”
Source: Macbeth
“Besides, they are our outward consciences,
And preachers to us all, admonishing
That we should drew us fairly for our end.”
Source: The Pictorial edition of the works of Shakspere, ed. by C. Knight. [8 vols., including a vol. entitled William Shakspere, by C. Knight]. [8 vols. The vol. containing the biogr. is of the 3rd ed.].
“Should the poor be flattered? No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift may follow fawning.”
Source: The plays and poems of William Shakspeare
“There are a sort of men, whose visages
Do cream and mantle, like a standing pond;
And do a willful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity profound conceit;
As who should say, I am sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!”
“Good things should be praised.”
Source: The Shakspeare gallery; containing a select series of scenes and characters, accompanied by criticisms and remarks, on 50 (40) plates (designed by H. Singleton).
“Love's heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams
Driving back shadows over low'ring hills.
Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.”
Source: Romeo and Juliet
“Love is your master, for he masters you;
And he that is so yoked by a fool
Methinks should not be chronicled for wise.”
Source: The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Third Series
“I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,
But qualify the fire's extreme rage,
Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.”
Source: The works of Shakspere, revised from the best authorities: with a memoir and essay on his genius by Barry Cornwall: also annotations and remarks by many writers, illustr. with engr. from designs by K. Meadows
“I do not know
What kind of my obedience I should tender.
More than my all is nothing; nor my prayers
Are not words holy hallowed, nor my wishes
More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers and wishes
Are all I can return.”
Source: King John and King Henry VIII
“Rashly,
And praised be rashness for it--let us know,
Our indiscretion sometime serves us well
When our deep plots do pall, and that should learn us
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will”
“Lords, knights and gentlemen, what I should say
My tears gainsay; for every word I speak,
Ye see I drink the water of my eye.”
Source: The plays of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustr. of various commentators, to which are added notes by S. Johnson and G. Steevens, revised and augmented by I. Reed, with a glossarial index
“But say, my lord, it were not regist'red,
Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
As 'twere retailed to all posterity,
Even to the general all-ending day.”
Source: The Works of Shakespeare ....: Richard III, ed. by A.H. Thompson
“Religious canons, civil laws, are cruel; then what should war be?”
Source: Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens: Two Classical Plays
“Being your slave what should I do but tend, Upon the hours, and times of your desire? I have no precious time at all to spend; Nor services to do till you require.”
“That god forbid, that made me first your slave, I should in thought control your times of pleasure, Or at your hand th' account of hours to crave, Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure.”
Source: Sonnets and Other Poems
“If wishes would prevail with me, my purpose should not fail with me.”
Source: Winter's tale. King John. King Richard II. King Henry IV, part 1. King Henry IV, part 2. Henry V. King Henry VI, part 1
“Though justice be thy plea consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation.”
“Beauty within itself should not be wasted.”
“A man should be what he seems.”
“The heavens forbid
But that our loves and comforts should increase
Even as our days do grow!”
“My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows, I am roughand lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.”
“What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and
heaven?”
Source: The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson, Stevens, and Reed; with Glossarial Notes, His Life, and a Critique on His Genius & Writings
